


Finally!

by axlaru



Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, The Song of the Lioness - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-07-11 15:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7057621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axlaru/pseuds/axlaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are finally new girls training to be knights in Tortall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Finally,” Keladry of Mindelan said. She was reading a letter from her best friend, Nealan of Queenscove. He wrote to tell her that there was a new girl starting page training at the palace in Corus. Two actually. 

“What?” Lalasa asked. Lalasa had been Kel’s maid, and was currently working on a dress for Kel to wear to her nephew’s wedding. Kel handed the letter to Lalasa. “This is wonderful! Maybe this time you and Lady Alanna will be allowed to help them.” 

“I think we will be,” Kel said. “The new trainer master is much more accepting than mine was at first. I think I’ll stay in the city after the wedding. I hadn’t planned to, but with this news it might be fun.” 

“I’ll get back to work now,” Lalasa said. She passed the letter back to Kel. “After all, I have gowns for the princesses to work on, as well.” 

“Of course,” Kel said. “If you need to go work on those, feel free. My gown is not so important.” 

“Nonsense,” Lalasa smiled. “Remember who allowed me to start my business.” 

Kel laughed, then walked to her desk, and pulled out a sheet of paper, and her writing tools. She quickly wrote a response to Neal’s letter, then also wrote a letter to her parents, telling them about her change of plans. She could stay in the palace if she wanted, but preferred to stay in the house her parents kept in the capital city. 

A week later Kel wandered over to the practice courts that had once been so huge and intimidating for her, and watched the new pages working with their horses. The girls seemed to be keeping up with the boys just fine, and didn’t seem to be as harassed as Kel had been. 

“I see you heard the news as well,” Lady Alanna said. “I’m glad they’ll have it easier than you and I did.” 

“Me too,” Kel said. She looked over to the older woman and smiled. “Though you did help me as much as you could, thank you for that.” 

Alanna nodded. They had discussed this topic before, and Alanna had told the younger woman that she didn’t have to keep saying thank you, but Kel still said it every time she saw the Lioness. 

“Hey Padraig! How about we let these kids see how real knights work,” Alanna called to the training master. 

The man rode over to where the two lady knights were standing. “Lady Alanna, Lady Keladry. I didn’t notice you two there. I assume you both would like to meet our new pages.” 

“Absolutely,” Alanna said. 

Kel was much more reserved than her red-headed friend, which had earned her the nickname “lump” during training, and said nothing but nodded in agreement. 

“Rebekah! Grace! Get over here, there’s people you need to meet,” Padraig called. 

“Yes sir,” the girls called in unison. They rode to the fence, and hesitated when they were close enough to see who the visitors were. Both girls beamed with identical toothy smiles. They were twins, with black curly hair straining to break free of their hair ties, and dark skin and brown eyes. 

“Lady Alanna, Lady Keladry, I’d like to introduce you to Page Rebekah and Page Grace of Pearlmouth.” 

The girls bowed awkwardly on their horses, and the lady knights bowed back. 

“Rebekah, Grace, I hope to see great things from you two,” Alanna said. 

“Yes ma’am,” Rebekah said. Her sister nodded in agreement. 

“I would love to be able to stay around if you have questions,” Alanna said. “Unfortunately, I have far too many duties as the King’s Champion to allow that.” 

“That’s all right, ma’am,” Grace said. 

“I—um—I should be able to stick around,” Kel said. “That’s my plan for this winter at least. So you can always come to me for training tips. I know how hard it is to keep up with the boys at first.” 

“Oh, thank you, Lady Keladry!” Rebekah said. 

“Please, call me Kel.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rebekah and Grace, new pages, get a chance to train with the legendary Lady Knight Kel.

Rebekah hammered on her sister’s door, yelling, “Come on Grace! We need to meet lady Kel in ten minutes.” 

“Would you relax? I’m up. I’m dressed. Let’s go.” Grace stepped out into the hallway and stared at her twin, who was holding a very large, very sharp looking weapon. “What is that?” 

“A glaive,” Rebekah said. “I thought I would ask Kel if she would teach us to use one. It’s her favorite weapon.” 

“You go ahead, I’ll stick with my sword,” Grace said. She followed her twin down the cool stone hallway, out of the castle, and to the practice courts, where Kel was already warming up with her own weapon, along with a few other women who Grace did not know. She stopped walking when she recognized one of the women. “Uh—Rebekah, are you sure about this? That’s—that’s—“ 

“The Queen!” Rebekah said. “I knew she sometimes exercised with Lady Kel, but I didn’t think she would be here now.” She ran the rest of the way to the group, and leaned her glaive against a fence post, before turning to bow respectfully to the adults. 

Grace approached much more cautiously than her sister, and only relaxed after she had bowed and Kel had introduced both twins to Queen Thayet. “Your majesty, it’s an honor to meet you.” 

“It’s a pleasure to meet the new generation of pages,” Thayet said. “Especially more young ladies. I know both of you will do great.” 

“Thank you, your majesty,” Rebekah said. “My sister and I are learning so much already.” 

“Excellent,” Thayet said. She turned to Kel and said, “Shall we get back to work? I have a meeting I need to get to soon.” 

“Definitely,” Kel said. “I want to show Rebekah and Grace some strengthening exercises, if you want to go back to what you were doing. Is that all right with you two?” 

Rebekah and Grace nodded, and followed Kel away from where the rest of the group had started a pattern dance with their weapons. 

“I was lucky, I was so big naturally, and I learned a lot about fighting in the Yamani islands before I came to be a page, but I still worked very hard to keep up with the boys. You may have already figured that out for yourselves.” 

“Definitely,” Rebekah said. “We learned some stuff before we came too, but we are smaller than the boys. Grace can outrun every last one of them though.” 

“You’re not much slower than I am, Becks,” Grace said. 

“Good, you can use that,” Kel said. “Strength isn’t everything. If you’re fast enough, you can get away from many attacks. You can even use your attacker’s strength against them.” 

“I still want to get stronger though,” Rebekah said. 

“Me too,” Grace nodded. 

“I’ll show you some exercises,” Kel said. She demonstrated a few strengthening exercises, and watched both girls do a set of them. “Good. If you do those exercises every morning and evening, you both will be just as strong as any of the boys in no time. Now,” Kel turned to look at the glaive that Rebekah had propped at the fence, “Let me show you how to use that.” 

Rebekah grinned, and retrieved the weapon. She listened carefully while the knight explained the basics of using the glaive, and finally followed Kel through a simple pattern dance. 

Grace watched her sister work for a few minutes, and followed along without a weapon. “Maybe I will give that a try.” 

“Told yah,” Rebekah said. “Get your own, though. I’m not sharing.” 

“Fine, I will,” Grace said. “Tomorrow.” 

Rebekah and Grace continued working with Kel and the other ladies until it was time for them to go to their regular training. 

As they were leaving, Kel called to them, “You are welcome to join us any time you like.” 

“Thank you, lady Kel, we will,” Grace called back. 

“That was fun,” Rebekah said. Grace nodded.

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to continue this. I don't know how often I will update though.


End file.
